


The Green Isle

by Keenir



Category: Dresden Files - All Media Types, Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-02
Updated: 2011-02-08
Packaged: 2017-10-14 08:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pau pele, pau manō = consumed by fire, consumed by shark.  Oaths and promises have a way of coming back.<br/>(completed)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> the big hurdle for me in this, was balancing Dresden's POV with the things he couldn't see.
> 
> this is a sequel to "Surf".
> 
>  **Note:** the Hawaiian phrase in the Summary means, loosely translated, “may I die if I don’t keep my pledge.” (source: ‘Hawaiian Dictionary’)
> 
> minor spoilers: season 1 (Hawaii Five-0 {2010} TV); "what about bob" (Dresden Files TV), "summer knight" (book)

**PREVIOUSLY….**

“And you didn’t find that suspicious?”

“It’s mysterious, sir. There’s a difference.”

-the Chief, Lt. Connie Murphy.

*

“You got here to be close to your daughter. Truth is, between visits, all you’ve got is your job, and you take pride in it. […] What’s the third?”

“Thing is, even if I tell myself it isn’t permanent, this is Grace’s home now. It’s my job to keep it safe.”

-Steve McGarrett, Danny Williams.

*

“Anna. My daughter. She’s nine.”

-Murphy.

*

“Wo Fat. What’re you doing here?”

“I have a question for you. One I needed to ask in person.”

“What is it?”

“How much does Steve McGarrett know about what his father was investigating before you killed him? How close is he to the truth?”

“Too close.”

“Well, we can’t have that, now can we?”

-Hess, Wo Fat.

*

“You’re not human.”

“Incorrect. I am a seven-year-old human child. […] Everything that my mother knew, I know. […] What would you call me?”

“Ivy.”

“Why?”

“You’re the Archive. Archive-y. Ivy.”

-Harry Dresden, The Archive.

 **~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 **AND NOW……**

My name is Harry Dresden. Says so right on the door somebody’s knocking on.

It also says I’m a wizard.

I go to my door and, either thanks to or despite a lifetime of knowing better, I open said door. “Yes?” I ask, as nicely as I can, considering who’s standing there.

“We have a job for you, Dresden,” Ancient Mai tells me. Morgan looks like he’d rather be elsewhere.

“Seriously?” I ask.

“Well there was that time I had just turned 22...” I say. But I add before her face starts slipping, “Other than that, never. So, what’s the job?” I’m helping Murphy right now - just ran home to check my reference books - but I also know better than to tell Mai ‘I’m busy.’

“Morgan,” Ancient Mai says.

He hands me a brown lunch bag.

I accept it and look inside. “Three plane tickets and cash?” Don’t get me wrong, I love cash. It helps me pay my rent. And buy food.

But consider the source.

“Also a travel bag for Hrothbert,” Ancient Mai says.

“You want to come inside?” I ask. “Maybe some tea?” Tell me what you’re hiring me for?

“Morgan will explain on the plane,” she says. “Don’t be late.”

And they’re gone.

Hm. These tickets are to Hawaii. I’ve been there once.

Before.

 *****

“Hey Murph,” I say when we finish the case.

“Yeah?” she asks me.

“You ever been to Hawaii?”

She fixes me with an Eye. “Harry?”

“This lady was happy with the job I did for her, and she couldn’t use the tickets, so she gave them to me.”

“How many tickets?”

“Three.”

“Three plane tickets to Hawaii?”

“That’s the long and the short of it,” I say.

Murphy gives me a little smile, and she says, “Harry, we need to talk about your timing.”

“Bad time?” I ask. Custody trouble? Just signed up for overtime at the precinct?

“Perfect time, actually,” Murphy says. “My family’s having a reunion again this year - not here or in New Jersey like they normally do.”

“In Hawaii?” I guess.

Murph nods.

“I need to talk to my ex, but I don’t see a reason why Anna can’t come too - I’m sure he’ll make an exception to the custody for this.“ Murph gets a strange look on her face, and says, “Looks like we’ll be attending my family reunion this year after all.”

“The Murphy Family Reunion?” I ask.

Murphy shakes her head. “Mom’s side of the family - Williams. You’d like them - they’re your sort of people.”

Well that could mean anything. But I’ll take it in the spirit its intended. “Thanks, Murph.”

 ***.*.**

 **Meanwhile…**   
__

_Wo Fat laid back on his hotel bed now that his bodyguards and employees were on the other side of his bedroom door, for the same reason he had switched off the speakerphone: some matters could not be aired, no matter if the overhearing party had been his since they could hold a gun. “Are you still there?” he asked._

 _“I am,” came the reply in his earpiece. “I have invested this much in you thus far. I will not hang up because I am left waiting.”_

 _“While I admire your loyalty,” Wo Fat said, “your bedside manner leaves much to be desired.”_

 _“This should not be a surprise.”_

 _“It’s not,” Wo Fat said, remembering her nubility._

 _“What of the money?” continuing from before._

 _“Some of it is gone,” he said. “Hess burned it.”_

 _“And through what route did he come to acquire it? Money-collecting was not part of his role in this.”_

 _“Steve McGarrett.”_

 _“A McGarrett robbed a bank. This is not interesting, this is useful.”_

 _“Useful in what way?” Wo Fat asked._

 _“Reasons of character. And it demonstrates a willingness to committ felonies. I will consider how to bring him into play.”_

 _“Anything I can do?”_

 _“How considerate. I want you to have fun.”_

 _“Suggestions?” he asked._

 _“Stay out of the mountains, as I shall handle them. You, I believe, can bring me Mary McGarrett unharmed.”_

 _“The usual place?”_

 _“Yes. I’ll bring a surprise.”_

 _Wo Fat waited for her to hang up before he said, “A surprise? I should be ready.”_

 ***.*.***

 **On the plane…**

Murph’s catching some shut-eye, and Anna’s chatting with one of her cousins in the seat in front of her. So I excuse myself and head towards the back of the plane.

“No further, Dresden,” Morgan says, half awake, warning me away from the last few rows of seats. So I sit down in the empty chair next to Morgan. No sign of Ancient Mai, but she might just be up in First Class.

“Who’re those guys?” I ask Morgan, half looking at the half-dozen people sitting all on their lonesome there in the back.

“You’ll be informed later, Dresden,” Morgan says.

All right. If you won’t tell me that, then lets try another question: “Why me?” I asked Morgan. Sorry pal, but if I’m going to Hawaii, I want to know why. Seriously, I don’t think the High Council’s paying the tab so I can see Kono.

Morgan looks at me and seems to understand I’m not going to let him get some shut-eye until I’m in the know. “The High Council has been asked to assist in a mediation there. Peace talks, Dresden.”

“Wow. Somebody really likes you guys.”

“You.”

“Say what now?” I ask.

“One side has accepted the Council’s offer, on the condition you be present.”

“Me?” Gotta be a mistake.

“’Harry Dresden, pupil of Hrothbert of Bainbridge, raised by Justin Morningway.’ That’s who they asked for.”

“Can you tell me who they are?” I ask.

“The Skinwalkers,” Morgan says, and I have a feeling it feels funny to him too.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I say. “I killed one of them. Blew her up. Incinerated. Poof. Gone.”

“You must have done something.”

“Maybe. Question is, what?”

“Not my concern, Dresden. If this conference works, that’s one fewer front we need to concern ourselves with.”

“’We’ being of course the High Council. Okay, then who’s the other party in all this?”

Morgan answers in a language I don’t know, and goes to sleep.

Swell, I’ve _still_ got questions.

Okay. Okay, I think I know who I can turn to. Someone who won’t turn me away.

I get up and head to the middle of the plane. I’m about to sit down, and I wait.

Kincaid opens one eye, sees its me, and closes that eye. Glad to know I’m still not intimidating.

“Can I sit?” I ask.

“Of course you can, Mr. Dresden,” Ivy says.

“May I?”

“You may. You have questions about the impending summit,” she says as I’m sitting down.

“You could say that - and you did, I know.”

She smiles. “You wish to know who the Skinwalkers have been at loggerheads with.”

I nod.

“The Night Marchers,” the Archive says. “Skinwalkers are the closest arrangement of matter and energy to their nature. Had they not inexperienced one another, they could have created a very powerful alliance against threats.”

“Like vampires and fae?”

“And the Council at times,” she says. “The summitt is similar to your duel in more than one way. In this instance, the role of the second is to ensure proper retaliation if the opposing side engages in warrantless attacks.”

Well, that explains why they picked _me_. “Who’s retaliating for the Night Marchers?” I ask.

“The Queen of the volcanoes and of dance, to provide an incomplete title. Pele.”

“We’ve met,” I say.

“You have?” and that’s genuine surprise in her voice. And she smiles. Not the sort of a smile that petting my cat induces - this isn’t the pleasure in being a kid for a few seconds, but the delight at being taken by surprise by something. Can’t imagine it happens too often.

“I have,” I say. “Want me to make introductions?”

“No. She and I had differing designs on your father,” the Archive says.

O-kaaaay, that’s way too much information. Hopefully I’m misinterpreting what she just said. Please let me have misunderstood that. “So, you and Kincaid and Morgan and Ancient Mai have plans for when we land?”

“We do. But we shouldn’t need you right away, Mr. Dresden. Enjoy yourself while you can.”

Okay, I need this vacation more than I thought - that almost sounded like a warning. Actually, maybe it was…when just dealing with Skinwalkers, lots of caution is needed. I can’t imagine what these Night Marchers are like. And with when you add in how powerful Ancient Mai and the Archive are…

With any luck, nothing at all will go wrong.

 **  
_*.*  
_   
**

_  
**Meanwhile, on the back roads of Hawaii…**   
_

_Catherine glanced behind her at the back seat of her car, then back to the road ahead. “You’ll be fine,” she told her passenger, needing to say it, regardless of if said passenger was still groggy or had dozed off or was awake with eyelids shut. “I got you away from them before anything could happen.”_

 _I would have saved you even if I wasn’t involved with your brother, Mary, _Catherine thought as she wound through empty roads._ Even if you hadn’t made that stupid-assed comment about fair fights. If anything happens to you, Steve will be just as hurt. Can’t have that _, she knew as she pulled out her cell phone and auto-dialed Steve.__

 _“Cath,” Steve said upon picking up. “I was just about to call.”_

 _She nodded how much she believed that. “I’ve got your sister with me, Steve,” Catherine said. “She’s safe.”_

 _“Why do you have her?” he asked, picking up on her choice of words - ‘I’ve got’ and not ‘We went out, the two of us.’ “What’s going on?”_

 _To Catherine’s trained ear, Steve sounded distracted, as though there was something problematic on his end of the line. “Whatever’s going on, Steve, between the two of us, or with anything else,” Catherine said, “your sister’s not a part of it.”_

 _“Well that’s not ominous,” Steve said, sounding to Cath a little like how he described his partner. “What’s going on - with us or that anything else?”_

 _And there was someone in the road. Catherine slammed on the brakes._

 _The person, she sees, is not human. The person is Pele._

 _Pele comes around to the door, opens it, and hesitates. Catherine takes the opportunity to hang up her phone._

 _There’s a growling from the undergrowth on both sides of the road. Standing behind the source of that sound, angry murmurs who carry well on the breeze._

 _“If you plan on taking one of the roads from here,” Pele tells Catherine, “you should get rid of the ham.”_

 _“I didn’t know she had it,” Catherine apologizes, and gets out to check Mary for lunchmeat. Where would the kidnappers hide it on her? And why would they give it to her? Because surely Steve’s sister would remember the rules. ___

 _By the time Catherine was done and had thrown the ounce of ham on the street, Pele was sitting in the passenger-side front seat. “Anywhere I can take you?” Catherine asked, buckling up and getting her car moving again._

 _“Wherever you are going is fine,” Pele said._

 _After sitting for a while, Pele said, “I have saved you from lava, Catherine. I have saved you from Marchers. Yet you insist upon bringing me trouble.”_

 _“You like a challenge,” Catherine said in a small voice, knowing that it was truth, but also that it was no excuse._

 _“I do indeed. And I have a challenging prospect for you.”_

Is the challenge to survive something? _Catherine wondered. “Yes?”_

 _“There is a peace conference about to be held not far from here,” Pele said. “The Night Marchers will be working to come to an arrangement with one of their haole enemies. Owing to their nature, the Marchers will send an intermediary to relay their terms and convey counter-offers. Their present intermediary deserves a vacation, I feel.”_

 _“I’m to be the new ambassador?” Catherine asked._ I almost didn’t escape from the Night Marchers the last time I crossed their path. __

 _“For a few days, at least.”_

 _“And then?”_

 _“We will see who is left.”_

Well that’s not ominous at all. __

 __  
***.***   
__  
_ _

_  
**A few minutes earlier…**   
_

_  
**FIVE-0 HQ:**   
_

_  
_“How did I get talked into this?” Steve asks._   
_

_“You didn’t really believe his family would ever be visiting,” Kono said, grabbing the keys before anyone else could._

 _“That and,” Danny said, “your boss gave you a direct order to be a tour guide.”_

 _“Can you sound just a little less gleeful?” Steve asked him._

 _“Are you kidding me? Now’s the time for payback.”_

 _“Has anyone told you you’re like a kid at Christmas morning?”_

 _“Huh. Can’t possibly understand why that is.”_

 _“Its understandable,” Chin said. “They’re your family.”_

 _“Yep,” Danny said. “Cousins, aunts nieces, my daughter. They speak my language.”_

 _“English?” Steve asked._

 _“You are never driving my car again. And do you know why? Its because you just do not get it.”_

 _“Oh no, I get it, I do. Family’s important,” Steve said as the four of them exited the elevator at the ground floor to head for - “The hell?” The entire Five-0 team ran to see who it was who’d been left on their doorstep, all crumpled up like a heap of soggy laundry._

 _Nobody found bruising or cuts. Only evidence of neglect and hunger. And a strong amonia smell._

 _Chin gingerly lifted her head. “Malia?” he asked as McGarrett’s cell phone started ringing._

 _McGarrett stood up and answered it, his eyes covering their surroundings, half expecting an attack or more victims…or_ something _in sight._

“Chin?” Malia asked, her voice hoarse and shaky, and started sobbing.

“Hey, its okay. You’re okay. You’re safe now,” he reassured Malia. To Danny and Kono, “You guys mind if I stay here?

“Don’t hold down the fort, buddy,” Danny said. “You see to her, is all. Kapische?”

McGarrett ran to his own car, and Chin said, “Completely.”

 ***.**

 **At the airport:**

“That was Malia?” Danny asked as they waited for the plane to touch down.

“Yeah,” Kono said. “Chin’s fiancee, right up until he was investigated by I.A. Then she made herself scarce.”

“I’m going to take a flying leap here - wild guess, you were as big a fan of hers, as I am of McGarrett’s driving ability and general people skills.”

Kono smiled at the comparison. “McGarrett has a good side. Malia, I thought she did, but obviously I was mistaken.”

“Wow,” Danny said. “Aaaaaand I think they’re here. HEY LAWYER. Over here!”

“Your cousin’s a lawyer?”

“Nah, she’s a law, that’s what I always tell her. Scary as hell when she gets mad - could make McGarrett curl up with his tail between his legs.” When the woman in question was close enough, “Connie Murphy, I’d like you to meet Kono Kalakaua. Kono, this here’s my favorite cousin, and my favorite niece… where?”

“She’s helping Ivy with her bags,” Murphy said. “Nice to meet you Kono,” shaking her hand. “And this is -”

“Harry,” Kono said, recognizing the man standing next to Danny’s cousin.

“Hey Kono,” Dresden said.

 *****

“Hi. I’m Grace. What’s your name?”

“Ivy.”

“Cool name. Do you like music?”

“Only if its off-the-cuff.”

“I think we have that.”

 *****


	2. Confrontation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay; the muses got distracted. But then I saw a movie that has a very Ivy-like character: the 2011 _True Grit_.

Steve McGarrrett followed the call back to its source, and found Cath’s car parked along one of the more scenic drop-offs. He pulled over alongside and came over to lean on the window. “You want to talk?” he asked.

Catherine rolled down the window, giving Steve a clear view of both herself at the wheel and his sister in the back. “Love to,” Cath said. “But we may be past that.”

“We don’t have to be,” he said. “Just tell me what’s going on.”

“Before I was volunteered, or after?”

“What’s the difference?”

“Before, is something you should talk with Mary about,” Catherine said. “After, it isn’t something you can help with.”

“Oh I don’t know, I’m pretty helpful.”

Cath smiled. “Yeah, you are. But this isn’t the sort of thing you know.”

“Never know unless you try.”

“I’m supposed to try, Steve. I don’t want to take you down with me.”

“You won’t,” Steve said. “So talk to me.”

Cath made a face just seconds before more cars pulled up, surrounding them, leaving them no place to turn but over the drop. “No time,” and she wasn’t just referring to this situation.

To McGarrett’s eyes, he had just been the victim of an ambush, a pincer movement aimed to pin him down and make a clean kill easier.

In truth, he had arrived on the scene not long before Wo Fat did.

“McGarrett,” Wo Fat called over. “Nice of you to come on such short notice. We were thinking of having your sister call you from one of my properties, but this will do just as well.”

“Who’re you?” McGarrett asked.

“It isn’t my name you should be concerned with, Commander. Its your options.”

“Let me guess. One of my options is to swallow a gun?”

“Nothing like that,” Wo Fat said. “Your options are to work for me, work for my benefactor, or you find a new line of work.”

“Seriously, you’re not going to kill me?”

“You’re too useful for that. Also, you haven’t crossed me yet.”

“Give me time.”

“No.”

“Have it your way,” Steve said, drawing his gun and firing on the half-ring of cars. But it was not long before he ran out of bullets, and learned that Catherine was unarmed, without even a spare clip in the glove compartment. “Everybody out,” Steve told both women.

His sister was groggy until she felt the wind coming from the open spaces which were all too close for comfort.

 _They’re coming this way,_ Catherine saw, looking at Wo Fat’s men.

Taking a firm grip on both McGarretts, Catherine jumped off the cliff. Nobody ran after them or shot at their falling bodies - a development she was very very thankful for. The rapidly approaching ground, however…

 *****

Unnoticed by anyone in the airport, Ancient Mai and the Wardens escorted the Skinwalkers out to the pre-arranged cars left in the parking lot for them.

Before the ‘Fasten Seatbelt’ sign had lit up for landing in Hawaii, Morgan had told Dresden that, if and should the island survived the conference, Dresden was free to vacation with the Murphys and the Williams. And that it would be his job (Dresden’s job) to get Danny and Kono to accompany them, rather than join the Williams clan on vacation.

“A problem, Mr. Kincaid?” Morgan asked the Archive’s bodyguard when that man hesitated before getting in the car.

“None,” Kincaid said. “Just not used to someone else driving.” _That’s part of my job, normally, leastwise where the Archive’s concerned._

“Vacation,” Morgan said, in the way Harry had.

 _  
*****   
_

Catherine and the McGarretts floated four feet off the ground, their eyes fixed on the old woman playing checkers on a fold-out table. Once she had won the game, she looked at the three people and asked, “Catherine, why do you test me?”

“They’re my friends,” Catherine said to the elder Pele. “I couldn’t let them die.”

“And?”

“I know not to let them be used against you.”

The elder Pele smiled kindly and gave a half nod -

And the humans dropped to the ground.

“You are learning,” she told Catherine. “Good. And your friends should leave now.”

“Why is that?” Steve asked, standing up, towering over the elderly woman. “Who are you? For that matter, how did you do that?”

“Catherine has dispensation to converse with those who are coming this way,” she said. “You and your sister do not. Nor will you ever.”

“And why is that? We’re not Hawaiian enough?” Steve asked. It was a common enough excuse, through much of his childhood, after all.

The elder Pele snickered. “Irelevant. The crimes of the parent, weigh upon the child. That is the reason.”

“Steve,” Cath said. “Please.”

“Not til someone tells me what’s going on,” Steve said.

“Catherine may explain when she arrives at the summitt,” the elder Pele said. “It is another matter if you will survive that long.”

“Now you’re threatening me?”

Sounding amused, she replied, “You must feel threatened by most everything. In this instance, however…” trailing off as a Choking Ghost shoved him aside, entirely unseen as it went by. “Now go,” the elder Pele reiterated to Steve now doubled over, and to Mary watching this with profound disbelief. “Or it will not be as kind the next time it touches you.”

“C’mon,” Mary said, pulling Steve away.

“I’ll meet up with you later,” Catherine told them. I hope. __

Only when the McGarretts were far enough away, did the elder Pele motion for the Marcher Lords to emerge from the forest. Catherine dropped to her hands and knees, keeping her eyes on the ground.

“Listen and well,” Catherine was instructed.

The Marcher Lords gave their position and their terms for her to convey.

 *****

 **At 5-0 HQ:**

Chin had finally convinced her to talk a little, and he held her while she shivered.

“I’m sorry, Chin,” Malia says again.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Chin tells her.

“Obviously I did. I’m here. That means you’re in danger. You or Kono…all my fault. If I wasn’t here, you’d still be safe.”

“Why’s that?” the cop in Chin asked before he could stop it.

“It was the deal. An arrangement. She swore to me you’d both be safe. Unharmed. Untouched.

“But I’m here…you’re here. But Kono’s not,” and winced.

“Malia,” Chin said.

“My fault. I’m sorry.”

“Malia,” Chin repeated, just as kindly.

She looked at him, tears blurring her vision.

“I’m not going anywhere. And Kono’s perfectly safe. As are you.”

Malia sniffled.

“Can you tell me who you made the deal with?”

“You’ll laugh.”

“I promise not to laugh. I trust you, I always have, you know this.”

She nodded weakly. “You know of her. Almost everybody on the islands knows of her.”

Chin went through a mental list of celebrities.

“Pele,” Malia said.

“Pele?”

“The deity, specifically.”

“And Pele told you to…?” curious. His curiosity was evident in his tone; Malia took comfort in that.

“I have to be a psycompomp, an intermediary. If I do that, she’ll keep you and Kono safe.”

“That’s a relative term,” Chin said. “Since you left, I’ve been shot, Kono’s been injured bad enough she had to quit surfing.”

“But you’re both alive, with your minds whole, your souls unscathed.”

“Our honor intact?”

“I found out, Chin. I found out who did it.”

“Who did what? Who dishonored me?”

Malia nodded.

“You want to tell me? Chin asked.

“I do. She did it,” tilting her head towards the group coming in now. Her eyes were clear now, focused on one person in the group.

Chin looked away from her for a moment - to see who it was - and Malia broke free with apologies pouring from her whispering mouth to him. Malia ran right at the group, ignoring Morgan reaching into his coat for a weapon -

\- The Skinwalkers jumped away from Malia -

\- Ancient Mai stayed Morgan’s hand, and the other Warden’s followed his example -

\- Kincaid stepped between Malia and Ivy, only to be thrown to the wall -

\- and Malia crashed into The Archive, gripping the girl’s throat tightly. “No more,” Malia said. “You’ll do it no more.”

The Archive smiled at her.

Chin stepped up behind Malia, trying to loosen her grip, trying to talk her down.

“Malia?” Kono asked. “Let go of the girl.”

Malia didn’t listen.

“Child,” The Archive taunted.

“You wanna shut up?” Danny asked her. To Malia, “She’s not worth prison.”

“She’s already been in prison, I imagine,” The Archive said. “Sodden ground the only place to rest her head. Eating week-old rats. Forced to roll in her own urine to stay alive.”

“Wh- ?” Danny started to ask, then looked to Kono.

“Why would you do that?” Kono asked.

 _So I’m not the only one in the dark,_ Danny thought. _Reassuring._

One of the Skinwalkers answered: “She was held by those we have come to reach a peace with. A precondition of the meeting was the release of a captive. Ours is in New York. But then, we have a much larger range than do the Marcher Lords.”

“That’s a story,” Kono said.

“She, Chin,” Malia said soberly. “The Archive is the one who was behind the theft you were blamed for, and for the crime all that money came from.”

“Then why’d you disappear?” Kono asked her.

“Then we’ll find the archive and the people behind it,” Chin assured Malia.

“There is no one behind me, Officer Kelly,” Ivy said.

Harry had a thought that, if the nice people in the room were aware that things weren’t as straightforward as they seemed, it would help. But before Harry could say anything -

“Hrothbert of Bainbridge,” Morgan said. “Show yourself.”

The spark of light arose from Harry’s duffel, and zipped momentarily around part of the room, before giving way to the image of Bob. “Not your most subtle, Morgan. But then, that is a part of your duty as Warden.”

“As it was yours,” Ancient Mai reminded him.

“Yes, well,” Bob said. “Good afternoon,” he said to Kono.

“Hi?” Kono half-said, half-asked.

“It’s quite alright, I’m perfectly harmless,” he assured her.

“But she isn’t,” Kono said, her gaze still focused on Malia.

“Malia, do as the nice officer asks,” Pele said, walking into the room.

Malia’s hands fell away from Ivy’s neck, and Malia turned and held to Chin like a drowning woman to a life vest.

“I’m going to take a wild guess,” Chin said, looking at the red-haired woman. “You’re Pele?”

“I am,” Pele confirmed. “Now, let us talk.”

 *****


	3. In-Office

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions keep going up - and things may explode soon if a solution is not found.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this has turned into something of 4 chapters.

After a not inconsiderable explanation - which Mai left Harry and Bob to do - during which time, the McGarretts returned to Five-0 HQ…

“You’re a magician,” Kono said to Harry.

“That’s right,” Harry said.

“A wizard,” Danny said.

Dresden nodded.

“And he’s a ghost.”

“By some definitions,” Bob said.

“And what about Malia?” Chin asked.

“She…” Dresden said, and looked to Bob.

“Your fiance made a deal with Pele to safeguard your family. In return, she agreed to be Pele’s errand girl.”

“The fae are big on deals,” Dresden said.

Malia nodded. “They are. Luckily.”

“But this can’t be the real Pele,” Steve said.

“Define real,” Bob said.

“A goddess.”

“As far as you’re concerned, she is.”

“’As far as we’re concerned’?” Mary asked. Nobody had bothered to send her away or out, not after this much had happened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Levels,” Bob said, and let Harry take over.

“What he means is this,” Dresden said. “I’m a wizard. I’m not even a very strong wizard. But you met Morgan out there, right? He’s a Warden, which makes him a good three, maybe five times more powerful than I am. And Ancient Mai’s ten times stronger than Morgan. She’s on the High Council.”

“Which is…what?” Mary asked.

“Our governing body,” Morgan said, standing by the door. Standing between the door and where Ancient Mai sat patiently.

“And that girl…you called her ‘archive’?” Chin asked.

“The Archive,” Dresden said. “Yeah.”

“Why do you call her that?” Kono asked.

“Well, I call her Ivy.”

“Prior to and aside from Dresden’s naming her,” Ancient Mai said, “the Archive had no name.”

“Why not?” Danny asked. “She’s a little girl.”

“She is the body of a little girl,“ the Archive said. “Within this body is knowledge of all mankind has ever written.”

“She’s read it all?”

“There’s no need to,” Mai said. “As the Archive, she knows it automatically. As did her mother before her, through the ages.”

“Ivy got the job from her mom?” Kono asked.

“In every sense,” Harry said. “The way Ivy explained it to me, she was born knowing everything her mom did - and being born left her mom in a persistant vegetative state.”

“Like her mom ad infinitum?” Danny asked, not liking where this was going.

Ancient Mai nodded.

“Who the hell would agree to something like that? Subjecting a kid - or anybody - to something like that.”

“There was no deal.” _There are things stronger than any fae or wizard. Things retired from the worlds and from the majority of the Nevernever. The Archive’s father is one of those._ “At the dawn of literacy, she was born.”

Feeling Malia against him, “So what are the fae in all this?” Chin asked. “Stronger than her?” refering to Mai.

“Some are, while some are weaker than Dresden.”

“Happy to be a yardstick,” Harry said. “Saying ‘fae’ is like saying ‘wizard’ - it only covers the broadest stuff.”

“Right,” Steve said. “Me and Mary, we ran into someone that Catherine called ‘Pele’ but she looked a hell of a lot older than the one here. Can they change their appearance?”

“Queens prefer to remain constant,” Ancient Mai said. “She might wear a power suit instead of a kilt and shirt, but the remainder is unaltered.”

“Now she’s a queen?”

“Absolutely. Okay, Pele’s a Queen of her Court,” Dresden said.

“Translation?” Danny asked.

“A fae Queen is the boss of at least dozens, sometimes thousands of fae. Sometimes other magical beings work for them too.”

“Like the Marchers?” Mary asked.

“No idea. Yet,” Dresden said.

“You’re telling us that what we saw is all Pele is?” Kono asked.

“Ask Mr. McGarrett’s phone,” the Archive said rhetorically.

“If she’s anything like Mab and Titania, that’s only one of three Peles. The one who is, the one who was, and -”

“The one who will be?” Kono said.

Dresden nodded. “The one who was, normally looks like an old lady. But she’s a giant of pure elemental power.”

“The embodiment of her field of nature,” Ancient Mai said. “Winter for Queen Mab, summer for Titania, e.t.c. The Pele _do_ have greater unity than do the Mab or the Titania,” Mai conceded.

“That’s not saying much.”

“True,” Mai said.

“Question is, how do we fight them,” Steve asked. “How do we take them down?”

Harry thought for sure that someone was going to burst out laughing - Morgan, maybe, or Mai. _But no, the room just had an absurd quiet, the sort entertained when someone suggests pitting Bambi against Godzilla in a mud-wrestling match._ He wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than the fact nobody had asked how to stop a Skinwalker from taking someone’s hide for a walk.

 ***  
At that very moment, at the beach…**

“So, who’s this Dresden?” Connie Murphy was asked by one of her aunts.

“A friend,” Murphy said.

“A friend who paid for your tickets here. I’d say that’s serious. Wouldn’t you?”

“If he had paid for them,” Murphy said.

A rude sound. “I told my sister not to move to Chicago all those years ago.”

“No, they were a gift,” Murphy said, clarifying the misunderstanding. “Harry’s a private detective. And, sometimes when a client can’t afford to pay in cash, they give him something.”

“Such as plane tickets,” Murphy’s aunt said.

“Like plane tickets,” Murphy said.

“And you like him?”

“Where did that come from?”

“That’s a yes, then.”

“Okay, I may have feelings for him. But when I’m on the clock, everything is strictly professional between us.” _Or as professional as possible._

“And where will the honeymoon be?”

Murphy gaped slightly. “Lets not get ahead of ourselves.”

 **and,** closer to where the tide was coming in, Anna and Grace were doodling symbols around the sand castle they had just built for the crabs, when a message formed in the sand before them:

=remember what we discussed, the three of us? I ask you to decide, Anna Murphy and Grace Williams, if you would want to be all-knowing, if you want to be smarter than anyone else. I need your answer=

And the girls whispered between themselves and, coming to a decision, answered their pen pal.

 **  
***  
Meanwhile, back at FIVE-0 HQ**   
**

“Are you sure that’s what you would like to do?” the Archive asked Steve. “Of all the potential enemies you could tackle, you chose them?”

“This is real life, not Pokemon,” Danny said.

The Archive shrugged. “Wait until you’re my age.”

“Rain check, okay?”

“A deferral would suffice.”

“What’s that supposed to -”

Interupting Danny’s question was one further arrival: Catherine plodded into the Five-0 office, a Santa-esque bag over one shoulder. She dropped it on the table and let go of it.

“What is that?” Danny asked, holding his nose.

“Who was it,” Cath corrected.

Ivy looked at the contents of the bag, and said, “Wo Fat. Dead now. A shame, he was a good lay.”

Catherine and pretty much every nonmagical person in the room looked at her.

“I’m old,” The Archive said. “I’ve had sex before. The alternative was virgin birth, which, as I told Mr. Kincaid at the time, hurts like a m-”

“Whoa whoa, language!” Danny told her.

Despite her height, the Archive still managed to look down on him.

“How old were you?” Chin asked.

“I am the Archive.”

“Which means less than nothing.”

“All the books, all the scrolls and stuff that people wrote,” Dresden said reminded. “All through history.”

“That’s what she is,” Morgan said.

“For now,” Ivy said.

“For now?” Dresden asked her.

“You’re planning to retire?” Steve asked.

“I am, in a way,” the Archive said. “I will pass on what I am to someone else. To one of my pen pals.”

“Dammit,” Ancient Mai muttered, which scared Dresden the most.

“Either to Anna Murphy, or to Grace Williams.”

“No way,” Dresden said at the same time Danny said, “Over my dead body.”

“This is far more drama than you were fond of when last we met,” Pele remarked to the Archive.

“Hedging bets,” Ivy replied. “Every possible outcome has been anticipated.”

“That’s what you think,” Steve said.

The Archive smiled at him. “Thank you for handling the evidence so much,” and mouthed a word.

Steve McGarrett dropped to the floor, folding his legs and staring at the wall like a little kid anxiously awaiting a favorite cartoon.

“Wow, where were you in our childhood?” Mary McGarrett asked.

“As I said to you before, Mr. Dresden,” Ivy said. “I _can_ do magic. I simply do not perform it with great frequency.”

“But when you do…?” Harry asked.

“Big shit,” Danny guessed.

“Language,” Ivy mock-chided him.

“How can you hope to do anything to the girls, though?” Dresden asked. “They’re at the beach or someplace.”

“On the sole of each shoe, under their feet, is a piece of paper with protective wards activated every time they take a step,” the Archive explained. “A Christmas present from me, one they needed only cut out and place in their shoes.”

“How protective?” Ancient Mai asked.

“I crafted the wards so only I can send something in or out,” the Archive replied. To the humans of the Five-0, “I offer a choice,” The Archive said. “Cooperate, or.”

“Or what?” Danny wanted to know.

“I won’t know,” she replied. “But it can only benefit you.”

“Even those of royal blood?” Catherine asked.

“What?” Danny and Chin asked.

Pele grinned.

“Not the right way, not the right time,” Malia muttered at Catherine, looking apologetically at Chin. Firmly, she said to the Archive, “You’ve tried it before. And yet again, you will not succeed.”

“Like any good author, I have learned from my mistakes,” Ivy said. “I invite you all to defeat my attempts.”

“Why?” Kono asked, suspicious at the invitation.

“The wards are interlinked,” she answered. “If one is stopped, another succeeds automatically.”

“So you win either way,” Mary said.

“Just so.”

“One question.”

The Archive waited patiently. She could afford to, at this juncture.

“Why Wo Fat? How’d you get him working for you?”

“Eight years ago, he did me a favor,” Ivy said. “I assured him I would repay him in quality. And I suspect he harbored hopes that my body would grow up to be as attractive as he considered my mother to be.”

“That and the prospect of having access to someone who knows the mind of every computer on Earth,” Danny said. “Or was he in the dark on that?”

“He knew. He humored me on that possibility, though he knew a particle of what I can do.”

“What’s that?” Dresden asked.

“I made it possible to destroy the youngest Pele,” the Archive said. “Is that not correct, Pele?” she asked the Queen.

“You are protected by treaties,” Pele said. “As your goal seems to be to violate treaties to rain destruction down upon yourself, why should I stop you?”

“Appropriate response,” the Archive said. To Five-0 and Dresden, “You have several options for while I am out getting a soda. Either destroy Pele and Ancient Mai, destroy me, or run to the beach to say your goodbyes to the unadulterated minds of two children,” and she left the room.

 _Nobody stopped her, or even stood in her way,_ Chin noted.

 *********


	4. Confrontation

Danny and Chin and Steve and Kono and Harry started to head for the door to go after Ivy…but stopped when they saw they weren’t going to be accompanied. “Something on your mind?” Chin asked.

“It’s moot,” Malia said.

Pele nodded. “Her plan has never worked. There is no point throwing tinder on a fire that will fail to ignite.”

“Says the volcano goddess,” Kono said. _Honestly never thought I would say that._

“I know fire.”

“We have to make sure her plan doesn’t work,” Chin said.

“If the plan doesn’t work, the Archive has the same body,” Morgan said. “If her plan does work, the Archive still exists. This isn’t the escape she hopes for.”

“That’s not the point,” Steve said.

“Then what is?” Cath asked. “What are you going to do against a god, Steve?”

Before he could answer coherently, “It doesn’t matter,” Ancient Mai said.

“The hell it doesn’t,” Danny stated flatly. “We are going to track down that kid and -”

“And do what?” Morgan asked him. “You can’t kill her.”

“Watch me.”

“Morgan’s literal,” Kincaid said. “The Archive can’t be killed.”

“She’s immortal?” _Then why does everyone keep talking about her like she can die?_

“Her knowledge is, yeah.”

“And she is her knowledge,” Morgan said.

“Any way to separate the two?” Kono asked.

Pele smiled. “That is precisely what she has been trying to find. Why did you think she taunts you?”

“Let me get this straight,” Chin said. “A girl whose mind is full of everything ever written, wants to committ suicide by cop?”

“I imagine she’s seen more than her share of suicide notes, murder confessions, and shopping lists,” Danny said. “Not to mention all the bad fan fiction.”

“And the books…‘Mein Kampf’, ‘Red Fish Blue Fish’, and all the others…” Kono said.

Looking at the wizards and Skinwalkers, Danny said, “Well, no clue what you’re going to do - okay, maybe a little one - but I’m going after her.”

The Skinwalkers formed a line blockading the door. Danny walked up to them and told them to move.

“We are Skinwalkers,” said the one Danny was facing. “That means we can take your skin as easily as we took those we are wearing right now.”

“Go for it,” Danny told them. “Cause that’s the only way you’re going to stop me.”

“You’re sure? You cannot be reasoned with?”

“Ask anybody.”

The Skinwalkers stepped out of his way. “That is the answer we were told to await.”

“Told by who?” Ancient Mai asked. “The mother of the Walkers?”

“Part of our hire was to remain silent regarding who hired us,” the Skinwalker said.

But by now, Danny was gone.

 *****

He found her at the soda machines, inserting quarters.

Everyone had made a big fuss about how The Archive was possessed of god-level powers, so Danny didn’t get more than ten, fifteen feet away at the closest. He did, however, take out his gun and aim.

“You should fire, Detective Williams,” the Archive advised him, not turning around from where she was facing the soda machines.

“You won’t do it,” Danny said, aiming for a kill shot on the Archive. Or what would have been a kill shot on a girl her size and age.

“Can you tell me the reason, Detective?” The Archive asked.

“Because I won’t let you.”

“I should be grateful you did not use the ‘you would have to go through me’ cliché,” she said. “But I am not grateful you ignored my question.”

‘Can you tell me the reason?’ “You’re not going to go ahead with this?” Danny asked.

“Quite correct. Can you tell me the reason?”

“Because you’re not insane.”

“ _That_ is perpetually debateable. And not the reason.”

“No idea,” Danny said. “You tell me.”

“Your daughter and Anna Murphy declined the invitation. I don’t force people, Detective. I prefer to open doors.” _I have time enough and time aplenty, for a long future. I can wait a bit more._ “Your daughter’s answer was quite interesting - ‘I want to do homework!’ - you should be proud.”

“Always am.”

Ivy smiled, nodded, and looked to the ceiling. All the lights went out.

A few seconds later, the lights came back on. There hadn’t been any sounds, not footsteps or wind or rustling anythings. Yet the Archive was gone.


	5. Closing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A special thank-you to everyone who's still reading this. My deepest apologies for taking so long.

After all that, the negotiations were simplicity itself. Though McGarrett was weirded out by several points relating to the talks or the parties involved.

After that was done, the summitt was declared completed by Ancient Mai and by Pele, and Malia and Catherine were released to live their lives. The Skinwalkers were invited to go on a boar hunt with the Marcher Lords (and later left the islands wearing poachers)

A day later, out on the beach with the Williams’ and Murphys, Harry turned to Pele and said, “I think I need a favor.”

“A favor?” Pele repeated. “You require a favor of me? In the wake of settling of accounts, one further thing?”

“Yeah,” I say. “I was wondering if you could provide a distraction.”

Pele smiled as she stood up.

“Without anyone getting hurt,” I add.

Now she looked slightly cross. “Do not confuse me with those of your flat-chested land,” Pele warned me. Switching to a hospitable tone, “I relish a challenge,” and walked out to the ocean.

When the sea was lapping around her ankles, Pele made the island’s volcano rumble sufficiently that it was audible on this coast.

Murphy and everyone else turned to look inland - and Murphy found herself facing Harry Dresden. Very close up.

“Hey Murph,” Dresden said.

“Harry,” Murphy said. “Have I told you that you’re timing is…?”

“Not lately, no.”

“It is.”

“I see. Well, could I…what I mean is, would you like to go on a date with me?”

Connie Murphy looked at him.

And while Murphy was saying Yes, Pele was thinking to herself _I will extract the favor from your boss, Dresden, not from you._

 *****

The next day…

“Dresden worries about the wrong thing,” Ancient Mai said.

The lead Skinwalker nodded. “The Archive is subtle, thoroughly so. Was all of this a distraction away from her true goal? Or is she no longer caring?” Either was disturbing.

“The High Council will keep watch over her.”

“As you have before,” and walked away.

Ancient Mai thought to herself, _When I spoke of Dresden, I meant his personal life._

 *****

That afternoon saw Kono and Danny leaning against the balcony railing.

“That’s your family.”

Danny nodded. “And the sort of people they know, yeah, I know.”

Kono didn’t mention what Pele had told her in private: that Kono was not just a descendant of the Kings of Hawaii…but that it was Kono and from Kono that the future rulers of the Islands would come. She trusted Danny - but this was the sort of thing she hadn’t told anyone, not even Chin or their relatives.

“I probably would have gone nuts a lot sooner,” Danny said.

Kono smiled. “What can you do, eh? Can’t exactly spank literacy.”

“Not without getting a visit from Social Services.”

 *****

At the airport…

“Dresden,” Danny said, calling the man over from standing in line for Departures with the Murphys and Williams.

“Yeah?” Harry asked.

When he was close enough, Danny confided in him that, “You hurt Connie, or she gets hurt from something you did, or you so much as go ‘Boo’ around her - your guts’ll be garters.”

“I think Ancient Mai has first dibs on my guts,” Dresden said. “But I know what you mean. And you should know you’ll be in line behind somebody.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Who?”

“Me,” said Harry Dresden.


End file.
